spent two days playing with ac balance and frequency on 4mm plate.
peeled backing off and tried different methods of cleaning.tried different methods of cleaning the rods too,different size and type of tungsten,ground every way,and could only end up with 1 foot by 2 feet square of guano
binned those pieces and was about to give up,but said id chance a bit of 1.5mm tube
instant difference
didnt even fine tune the settings,just put down a couple of quick short beads.
i pulled those pieces from a cutoff/scrap bin from a steel suppliers so dont know what the difference was,im clueless with aluminium.
different grades??
More like the difference between a large 4mm plate and a 1.5mm tube; the former is a far bigger heatsink, you don't seem to be getting enough heat in. Did you try cranking up the amps?
tried the thicker plate again today,worked perfect
forgot to mention i just changed over to a new bottle of gas....
the first bottle was practically full when the welder arrived 8 days ago,its marked argon but now i have my doubts.
it welded grand on the stainless i tried out,would that be less sensitive than aluminium to the shielding gas?
If there was a problem with your gas it would of showed up straight away regardless of steel, stainless or Alu. Your tungsten would of eroded if it was a Ar/Co2 mix and everything would of been browny black and full of little holes
think i have it sussed
when swapping bottles i fitted a better hose,changed hoses back again tonight with original crap welds.found a small leak in the old one
tried some thin sheet today,1.4mm
getting it tacked is still a battle,no matter how hot and quick i try
making a bit of progress,but finding too much/little penetration tricky
its visible in the weld that i need to back off the pedal as the piece heats up
forgot to clean aswell